Re-Outlining MY WIP, Part II: Plot Grids and Scene Outlines

A couple of months back, I wrote a blog post about how I’m re-outlining an old WIP before writing the second draft. In that post, I promised to write another post on how I write scene outlines. The time has finally come to fulfill that promise. It has taken me longer than I expected to finish the outlining process for what I’m calling Project Urban Fantasy. Partly because the publication of Comes with an Attitude* (my modern Pride and Prejudice retelling) took up a lot of my time, and partly because I spend a lot of time researching and brainstorming to make sure that my plot works and makes sense. So let’s continue where I left off in my last blog post—with an updated list of steps following the first five steps I had finished by that point.

 

Step 6: Make a Plot Grid

I was already considering making a plot grid when I wrote the previous post, but as I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it, I didn’t count it as a separate step. But my experiment with the plot grid was so helpful that I would recommend it to other writers as well, especially if you have a lot of subplots or characters you want to track.

Simply put, a plot grid is a visual tool that gives you a bird’s eye view of the story as a whole. It features chapters or scenes in rows and subplots or character arcs in columns. I used a simple Excel worksheet for mine. I had one row for each chapter, and columns for chapter, beat, main plot, and seven minor characters.

My plot grid before I started filling it

As I filled out the plot grid, I noticed that there were huge gaps in the minor characters’ story lines. For example, the love interest was introduced in Chapter 1, but the next time he was mentioned only in Chapter 7. The main character becomes friends with another minor character, but they are first mentioned in Chapter 8, and their relationship didn’t have much progress. The main character has an important family member in her life, but they were only mentioned twice in the entirety of the book.

Noticing these (and many other!) gaps helped me realize where I needed to add mentions of the minor characters, and it also helped me figure out whether the relationships were growing and developing naturally over the course of the narrative. That doesn’t mean that I needed to mention every minor character in every chapter, but I wanted to make sure I would leave enough breadcrumbs – so that when something happens to the main character’s family member, for example, I want readers to remember who they are and why they are important to the main character.

 

Step 7: Write the Scene Outlines

Once I was certain that I had all the elements the book needed: characters, character development, consistent worldbuilding, and main plot and subplots that make sense, I could move on to the last step of the outlining process: writing scene outlines.

For scene outlines, I use a template that I’ve compiled from several sources. The most important sources for my scene outline template have been John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story*, which talks about the ideal scene sequence (in pages 374–375) and Steve Alcorn’s How to Fix Your Novel*, which has a chapter about scene and sequel.

Alcorn states that scenes are action and sequels are reaction to whatever happened in the previous scene. According to him, scenes have three elements: Goal, Conflict, and Disaster. Sequels have four elements: Emotion, Thought, Decision, and Action. I’ve also heard that Dwight Swain uses a similar structure of Goal, Conflict, Disaster and Reaction, Dilemma, Decision in his book Techniques of the Selling Writer* (which I have not yet read). In both structures, Decision is the same as the Goal of the next scene. I have also stumbled across a version of this structure where instead of disaster, a scene may also have an outcome. I find that a helpful addition, as not every scene ends in a literal disaster.

Here’s an image of my scene outline template:

My scene outline template

I start with a chapter and a scene number (1.1 meaning the first scene of Chapter 1), followed by a short summary of what happens in the scene. I also have a row for the setting (that includes both the place and time) and sometimes also characters that appear in the scene, if I find that helpful. I also mention the beat or the place in the character arc to remind myself where in the story we’re supposed to be. Then follow the Goal, Conflict, and Disaster/Outcome of a scene, and the Emotion, Thought, and Decision of a sequel. I’ve left out Alcorn’s Action, as that is basically the same as the Goal of the next scene. 

I copy-pasted this template for every single scene and started filling it in. This part of the outlining process was helpful for two reasons. First, it made sure I have enough conflict in each scene – something that I’ve struggled with in the past. Secondly, it ensured I knew what the main character’s reaction to the events were. In some sequels, I realized I needed to vary her emotional reactions so that she doesn’t react to every event in the same way. The scene outline was also the final point of making sure that the plot made sense: every scene ended with a decision that would then form the goal of the next scene(s).

 

Why I Love Scene Outlines

I’ve used this scene outlining method now for planning two novels and several short stories, and I’ve found it immensely helpful. The outline means that when I start writing, I know from the start majority of the things that are going to happen in the scene and how the scene I’m writing will progress to the next scene.

The first time I used this scene outline method was as a diagnostic tool for Project Prehistory after I had written the first two drafts. In that case, I used it to make sure that all my scenes had enough conflict – and as it turned out, I had several scenes where there was no conflict! This method helped me analyze an already existing manuscript and find scenes that either required major rewrites or needed to be cut entirely. So even if you’re not a plotter and an outliner, you can use the scene outline as a diagnostic tool after a pantsed or plantsed or discovery written (whatever terminology you choose to use) first draft.

 

Step 8: (Re-)Write the Book

I’m now off to Step 8: Write the damn book. I started the second draft a few weeks ago, and thanks to all the meticulous re-outlining and planning, I’m finding editing and writing the draft a rather painless process. Naturally, there are problems along the way I need to solve, but I can already tell that this draft will be so much better than the first. Luckily, I can reuse a lot of the material from the first draft in the early chapters, and it will only be the latter chapters that need major rewrites, changes, and additions.

I hope that you’ve found my series of (re-)outlining my novel helpful! Let me know how you like to outline your books, what methods you use, and if you plan to try any of the methods I’ve listen in this and the previous blog post.

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